The Government's top medical expert today apologised to the patients caught up in the Middlesbrough General Hospital CJD scare.

The apology comes as a report into the incident found no wrongdoing at the hospital where the incident occurred last year.

It was also revealed today that the worst of the human BSE epidemic may be over. A study suggests that new variant CJD, the human version of the cattle brain disease BSE, peaked three years ago and is now in decline.

Speaking about the Middlesbrough General scare, Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: "I am very sorry that this situation caused so much distress to the patients and families concerned."

The document recommends that surgical procedures be tightened up following the incident when 24 patients were exposed to instruments used on a woman with undiagnosed sporadic CJD.

The report states the hospital had adequate decontamination systems in place and were following guidelines on how to inform patients of the situation before the news hit the headlines last October.

Bosses at South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust quarantined the equipment as soon as the diagnosis of CJD was confirmed but the instruments had already been used on other patients.

The Trust set up a special helpline for anyone worried as staff began contacting all the former neuro patients and Dr Bill Kirkup, regional director of public health, was called in to investigate the incident.

Staff from South Tees worked closely with the CJD Incidents Panel to look at each patient's own risk of developing the deadly brain bug.

But the patients slammed health bosses as they revealed they were still in the dark about the risk four months after the major scare.

Chiefs apologised for the "delay and distress" caused and reassured patients they had taken action to ensure the same sort of incident could never happen again.

Dr Paul Lawler, medical director for the trust, said: "I think the report is a very fair response. This has been a learning curve for everyone involved and we are pleased the Trust, the Department of Health, the CJD Incidents Panel and the NHS in general have learned from this experience.

"We have upgraded our instrument washing programme and would like to see new recommendations for brain biopsies become national guidelines."

Today scientists from the National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh said the death rate from vCJD - likened to BSE - reached its highest point in 2000, when the disease killed 28 people. Since then there had been a monthly decline, to 20 deaths in 2001, 17 in 2002, and so far one provisionally recorded death this year.